West's Ukraine Project Is Doomed To Failure, Say Russia's Lavrov

Responding to the ongoing provocation by Obama, Cameron and other Western leaders against Russia, by propping up a fascist Ukraine along the Russian borders, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told correspondents yesterday that the West's geopolitical project for Ukraine stands no chance of success.

No Political Initiatives from West

He pointed out that, in line with agreement reached at talks in Geneva back on April 17, Russia's way sought to influence the situation in Ukraine to turn it from military confrontation to political talks in full accordance with obligations taken by the Russian Federation, the United States, and Ukraine. But, he noted, whatever Russia has done to launch a political process, everything has been confronted with counteraction from Ukraine's leaders, who felt and feel support from the U.S.A.

Lavrov told journalists:"I have neither seen nor heard of any political initiatives from our Western colleagues...There were the Berlin agreements, now there are the agreements promoted within the OSCE. I want to ask our Western colleagues what their contribution to a political resolution is..."

Referring to the U.S. and EU sanctions against Russia, soon to be intensified, he said: "We will overcome any difficulties that may arise in certain areas of the economy, and maybe we will become more independent and more confident in our own strength," Reuters reported. He added that Russia is not experiencing joy from the sanctions, "nor those European countries which are imposing them."

Futile Demonization of Putins Reveals Intention for War

Not for quite a long time has there been a demonization campaign quite like the one against Russian President Vladimir Putin today.

Cartoonists and newspaper editors are working overtime to come up with images of how horrible he is. They have either used juxtaposed images of the MH17 crash, or simply used pictures of Putin looking unremorseful, and sometimes utilizing images of Mushroom clouds, with 'tough' headlines.

'It's Totally Incompentent...'

"It's totally incompetent, and it won't work," commented Lyndon LaRouche on this campaign. But it does make clear the intention for a confrontation that threatens World War III.

Another line of attack is a series of legal actions intended to target Putin personally, coming appropriately from the British.

Last week, British Home Secretary Theresa May ordered the reopening of the murder case in connection with the death of ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who before dying of radiation poisoning had accused Putin of being responsible for his murder. The second is the announcement, made in the Sunday Telegraph, that "British Lawyers Preparing Multi-Million Pound Suit Against Putin for MH17 Crash."

The New York Times reported on Saturday July 26, that the Obama administration is debating whether or not to provide intelligence information that would enable the Kiev regime's forces to better target rebel forces, including, in particular, surface-to-air missile systems that Russia has allegedly provided to the rebels.

'How to Confront Putin'

"Already, the question of what kind of intelligence support to give the Ukrainian government has become part of a larger debate within the administration about how directly to confront President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and how big a role Washington should take in trying to stop Russias rapid delivery of powerful weapons to eastern Ukraine," report the Times' David Sanger and Eric Schmitt.

An unnamed official told the Times that a proposal to give the Ukrainians real-time intelligence hasn't reached Obama's desk yet, but "that the decision on whether to provide targeting information would soon become 'part of the intel mix.'" The Times admits that there are two problems with doing that. One, the Ukrainians may not be able to employ the information effectively—they lack the capability to do so, especially against moving targets—but the second problem really gets to the nub of the matter: the problem of escalation.

"We think we could do it easily and be very effective," a senior military official involved in the discussions told the Times. "But there are issues of escalation with the Russians, and the decision about whether its wise to do it" is complex. "The debate is over how much to help Ukraine without provoking Russia," said another official.

Russian Intelligence Service Heads on EU Sanctions List

Barack Obama held a video conference with the heads of government in Germany, France, Britain, and Italy yesterday, to finalize and "coordinate" sanctions policy. In a post-conference briefing, Deputy National Security adviser Tony Blinken presented the lying premise: "Russia bears responsibility for everything that's going on in Eastern Ukraine."

Sanctioning Provocation

A few more details on the new EU sanctions list which will be published today, have been leaked to the media over the past weekend: among the 15 individuals who are to be hit with travel visa bans and seizure of Western bank accounts, are Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, and the heads of the foreign and domestic intelligence services, Alexander Bortnikov and Mikhail Fradkov.

German Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who fully backs this sanctions catalogue, told Der Spiegel that "these sanctions will hit the Russian oligarchs." If at all, these are oligarchs who work with Putin, and not the ones whom the West has been using all these years to weaken Putin. At least, the German government has slowed down the pace of sanctions, while not calling them into question in principle, by insisting that if some EU states like Britain and France are keeping military deals with Russia, others, like Germany that have frozen them, should get concessions as to the scope and duration of economic sanctions. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier this morning demanded that if sanctions have a serious backlash on some EU member economies, the damage must be shared by all—this being a question of the very EU solidarity which everybody appeals to in the entire debate.

The sanctions and their usefulness are still under heavy dispute in Germany, as shown by the Christian Democrats' foreign policy spokesman Philipp Missfelder, who does endorse sanctions but not without adding that Russia will tighten its belt and withstand the effects of sanctions for a long time, having a long breath. Furthermore, Missfelder lashed out against the "duplicitous attitude" of the Brits who are in the forefront of those who call for tough sanctions but are not intending to touch their own military deals with Russia.

However: The general dynamic of the idiotic sanctions debate creates a climate in which the groundwork is being prepared for things like the European Court in The Hague to rule that Russia must pay damages of $50 billion to former shareholders of the Russian oil company Yukos. Its CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003 for tax fraud and sold his shares in 2005. According to the second-largest Sunday tabloid Welt am Sonntag, a strong propagandist of anti-Putin steps, the most valuable part of Yukos was sold to the Russian oil company Rosneft, which is run by Putin advisor Igor Sechin, who has been put on the sanction list by Obama.